Karen McMahon

Karen McMahon has been a well-respected and award-winning agricultural journalist for more than three decades. In 2000, she served as president of the American Agricultural Editors' Association (AAEA), a group of more than 400 professional farm writers. She also is active in the Agricultural Media Summit (AMS) and served as chairman in 2001 and chair of the sponsorship committee for several years. She has attained the top Master Writer Award level from AAEA and won various writing awards from the Am. Society of Business Publication Editors and Minnesota Monthly Publications Association.

Karen joined Farm Industry News as senior editor in 1998 and was named editor two years later. Prior to that, she was managing editor for five years of another Penton publication, National Hog Farmer. She grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm near LeMars, IA, and earned her degree in journalism from South Dakota State University. Since then, Karen has worked in agricultural communications.

Her experience on magazines and organizations includes work on Hog Farm Management, the National Pork Producers Council, and HogsToday/Farm Journal.

The SIMA farm show in Paris featured new technology including a field robot and height-adjusting cab for self-propelled sprayers. Major exhibits included AGCO's Massey Ferguson and Valtra, Amazone and Lamborghini.

New equipment at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville included products from Balzer, Air Barn, Unverferth, PECO, Chandler Spreaders, GVM, JCB, MacDon, Agromatic, Salford, Schulte, and Loftness.

The National Farm Machinery Show features a wide array of products. Team FIN farmers for Farm Industry News identified a number of products that caught their eye, from a bagging system for dry hay and a 3-in-1 welder/compressor/generator to durable work lights and a simple rack for storing hose. Here's a look at products from Thunder Creek, Digi-Star, Norstar Industries, Gecko's Toes, Kemco Manufacturing and Trouble Free Lighting as well as the Air Barn and Creatherm products.

New products at the Iowa Power Farming Show held last week in Des Moines, Iowa, were Capstan's PinPoint nozzle system, Unverferth Seed Runner, Parker grain cart with tracks, Rite Way land roller, Quality Plus grain conveyor and a PLA self-propelled sprayer from Argentina.

New equipment on display at the Iowa Power Farming Show held last week in Des Moines, Iowa, include machinery from Westfield, Brandt, Great Plains, Miller, and Landoll, as well as the Gaspardo planter from Italy.

Narrow-row corn just got narrower. Stine Seed Company planted and harvested 2,500 acres of 12-in.-row corn in central Iowa last year. A hybrid designed for high density production yielded 320 to 330 bu./acre on the cropland.

“(The fields) were up where we had a little extra rain and a little extra nitrogen on it,” reports Harry Stine, president, Stine Seed. “Most of our other yields were much lower with a farm average of 145 bu./acre (mostly 22½-in. rows).”

The latest tillage implement from John Deere is the new 2720 Disk Ripper with a disk-ripper-disk configuration. This heavy-duty primary tillage tool will size and bury crop residue, penetrate and shatter compacted soils, and mix and level the soil. The new tool features a gang design with heavier C-springs, thicker gang tubes and the largest gang bolt in the industry, according to Deere.

Editor’s note: Farm Industry News will be attending the SIMA show and will provide coverage here online.

One of the world’s largest farm shows will be held in Paris from Feb. 24 to 28, 2013. Called SIMA, the International Trade Exhibition for Agricultural Equipment and Livestock Farming is held every two years in the famous French city at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center.

Dow AgroSciences and M.S. Technologies just announced a future three-gene, herbicide-tolerant soybean that is expected to be launched in 2015. Called Enlist E3, the new three-gene event is the first in the industry for soybeans, according to Dow AgroSciences.